Ludomir R. Lozny

Up until now, mountain ecosystems have not been closely studies by
social scientists as they do not offer a readily defined set of
problems for human exploitation as, do for instance, tropical
forests or arctic habitats. But the archaeological evidence had
shown that humans have been living in this type of habitat for
thousands of year. From this evidence we can also see that
mountainous regions are often frontier zones of competing polities
and form refuge areas for dissident communities as they often are
inherently difficult to control by centralized authorities. As a
consequence they fuel or contribute disproportionately to political
violence. But we are now witnessing changes and increasing
vulnerability of mountain ecosystems caused by human activities.
Human adaptability to mountain ecosystems This volume presents an
international and interdisciplinary account of the
exploitationof--and human adaptation to--mountainous regions over
time. The contributions discuss human cultural responses to key
physical and cultural stressors associated with mountain
ecosystems, such as aridity, quality of soils, steep slopes, low
productivity, as well as transient phenomena such as changing
weather patterns, deforestation and erosion, and the possible
effects of climate change. This volume will be of interest to
anthropologists, ecologists and geologists as mountainous
landscapes change fast and cultures disappear and they need to be
recorded, and mountain regions are of interest for studies on
environmental change and cultural responses of mountain populations
provide clues for us all. Critical to understanding mountain
adaptations is our comprehension of human decision-making and how
people view short- and long-term outcomes.